World Cup Day 10: Your Running Commentary

World Cup Day 10: Your Running Commentary

As the World Cup enters its tenth day of action, several teams are trying to assert themselves as contenders to escape their groups.

Argentina have a simple task on Saturday. A win against Iran puts them through. That is where the simplicity ends. Iran held African champion Nigeria to a scoreless draw in their opening match and can keep their hopes alive with just a draw in what is considered the biggest game in Iranian history.

In Group G, Germany can do themselves and the United States a favor by defeating Ghana. After rolling over Portugal in their opening match, the Germans are considered one of the primary contenders to win the World Cup. They cannot clinch a spot in the knockout rounds on Saturday, but a win coupled with a U.S. win or draw against Portugal on Sunday sees them through. The U.S. can live with a Germany draw, as that and a win against Portugal puts them through, thanks to a 2-1 win over Ghana in the opener.

Bosnia and Herzegovina put up a fight against Argentina in their first ever World Cup game. Their only downfall was the fact that they were playing against Lionel Messi. The lone team without a point in Group F, Bosnia could really benefit from three points. Nigeria will also be gunning for the three points. They end the Group Stage against Argentina next week.

If you will be watching today’s matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

I know that it’s assumed we win or tie tomorrow. But the reality is that we can lose as well. Taking that into consideration I think a tie today would not be a terrible thing. If we lose tomorrow and Ghana feel they have no chance to go on, then they might lay down for Portugal and give Portugal four points to go ahead of us. If Ghana-Germany tie, and we lose tomorrow, and Ghana plays Portugal hard into another tie, we move on. If they tie today and we get any points tomorrow, we likely move on as well.

I think a tie today gives us a safer chance of moving on, no matter the result tomorrow. But in reality who knows… Assuming any outcome of tomorrow’s game is more than a little foolish, but I guess we have to choose something to make a decision on what our favored outcome is.

I’m going to go against the grain here and say Brad Davis should play tomorrow. Non of these European teams can handle the heat and that’s were our advantage is and we need to milk it. This isn’t a Aaron Johannson game it’s a Wondo, Cameron, Davis, Gonzo etc Everyone that’s played in MLS needs to play in this one

There’s no way you sub on Gonzo, did you watch that Nigeria game. Gonzo come in immediately lets Moses blow past him and Besler has to give up a PK to stop the goal. We should put Julian Green in at center back before Gonzo.

JayAre, so you think the Amazon will be
hard on the Nordic Vikings, and Anglo-African Saxons?.
(I still have that pained image of TC, in the heat in Honduras,
Hunter S. Thompson-esque, something out of fear and loathing in Las Vegas? ).
Maybe by now everybody has adapted to the climate change?.

Despite the poor performances, Argentina is looking good all the way to he semis where they don’t face neither Brazil nor Germany, shold the last two win their respective group . I told my friends this is Messi’s world cup, and so far is shaping out to be the case.

If we draw Portugal: We need a result vs. Germany…….or, need a draw between Portugal-Ghana, or a Portugal win.

If we lose to Portugal: We need a result vs Germany, and we become Portugal fans vs. Ghana, as even a draw vs. Germany, might not be enough for a us. If we were to lose to Portugal 1-0, then draw Germany 1-1, and then Ghana were to beat Portugal 1-0…….Ghana goes through.

I’m not convinced of that. We recently beat them, and If Ghana can get this close to beating them, then why can’t we actually beat them? I know it’s not the most likely scenario, but it’s also not a crazy though.

If the U.S. does beat Portugal then the U.S. can think about winning the group and playing possibly a very beatable Russia or South Korea side in the knockout rounds. They have a great opportunity to defeat a hobbled injury plagued Portugal. The U.S.players can smell it. Take care of business boys!!!!!!!!!

According to weather dot com the temperature at kick off tomorrow in Manaus will be 78° with 87% humidity. Right now it’s 74° with 81% humidity in Miami and 75° with 81% humidity in Houston tomorrow will be 73° with 81 % humidity in Chicago. The weather in Ghana is 81° with 81% humidity and it’s usually like that year round so this isn’t something they aren’t used to and we beat them.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say we have a serious advantage tomorrow.

Well, considering it is 5:30 right now, and it’s 87 degrees outside(according to weather.com), that’s a HUGE drop… I think you’re also looking at the morning. I’m gonna bet on you misreading the information rather than me imagining the heat I just felt outside.

It’s not posting the reply with the links to weather.com. But you’re mistaken. For today and tomorrow it says that by 9 pm it will be 84 degrees. I don’t know how you’re misreading it, but you are. Any rational person comprehends that the weather doesn’t drop 10 degrees from one hour to the next unless there is a giant cold front coming through which seeing as how it’s summer(and it doesn’t say it’s happening on weather.com), it’s not happening. You can insist all you want, but the reality is that this information you’re giving is wrong, and that weather.com isn’t agreeing with you. So I’m not sure wether you’re reading it incorrectly, or reading something else.

Yeah I completely agree. At least a few of our players are used to this heat and humidity, and I’m willing to bet that almost none of theirs are. I think you’re right that if we can outlast that initial freshness we have a good chance.

No. We beat Ghana despite playing poorly. Which is what good teams do. Part of the reason we played poor was because we took the lead 30 seconds into the match, at which point our sole objective was to preserve the lead, not posses, not advance the ball. Had we not scored in 30 seconds we wouldn’t have played that way.

Also Portugal suck and we will dismantle them tomorrow. I am completely unimpressed with them, their playoff against Sweden showed their completely lack of depth and required Ronaldo at the height of his powers to stave off a sweden team which also only had one quality player.

You are misinterpreting what happened in our game. We got our early goal and decided to play defensively. In my opinion that’s stupid cause sooner or later the other team will score. BUT the moment we attacked again…BOOM, goal. Which tells me that if we had been attacking all game we’d have scored more goals. Playing not to lose generally causes you to lose(or give up points), in ANY sport.

Ok, well if you want to be so specific about just the action of a corner kick being interpreted as “Attacking,” then no. BUT attacking strong and getting a corner from it that results in a goal, IS. You can be as negative as you want, but the reality is that we scored quickly. Then went into defense mode. Within minutes of their goal, we scored and went back into defensive mode. You can try to paint it however you like, but those are facts. When they were really attempting to score, they scored quickly…twice.

However, most of the posters on here have either 1) a very poor understanding of the game 2) suffer from blindness 3) think the USMNT was playing today and not Germany 4) have one extra chromosome or 5) have their egos and personal worthy WAY TOO wrapped up in the USMNT and can’t handle any realistic criticism of the team without throwing a fit that could only be roughly describe as the equivalent of petulant, puerile brats who had their favorite video game taken away from them.

The team played terribly. Too many excuses come from the fans and posters on here but the simple fact is the team scored early, defended wave of attack after wave of attack and managed a crazy and unlikely fluke header to win the game. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less. Outside of Dempsey’s goal, Howard’s saves and Jones, the team looked as it has for most of JK’s term: disjointed, unorganized, unsure of tactics and positioning, timid in the midfield and generally useless in the attack.

I get so sick of hearing the excuses for losing Jozy. If the team is that dependent on him to help Bradley and the attack, the team isn’t that good frankly. Dempsey did get his nose broken and that is awful, but as others have pointed out, athletes regularly play hurt or sick. He is a multi-million dollar athlete playing in what will most likely be his last Cup. Not to mention, he has played with broken facial parts before…

All this “you are a troll” nonsense is what is known as the ad hominem fallacy: you attack the person expressing the ideas, not the ideas themselves.

The team has looked poor for most of JK’s tenure and looked poor in the last match.

The reality is the USMNT is the third best CONCACAF team in this Cup thus far, as measured by showings on the field and clearly the worst in the group, despite the win.

Sports fans can be annoying, but the posters on here, for the most part, are simply refusing to recognize reality or deal with it.

Poor, poor little, sad lost souls…it’s just a game! One day I hope you learn that fact.

Loser has cycled through about 15 identities in the World Cup buildup alone. This is what the chump does all day long, every day. Maybe he’s paralyzed or something… I guess I’d feel bad for him. Kind of.

“4) have one extra chromosome or 5) have their egos and personal worthy WAY TOO wrapped up in the USMNT and can’t handle any realistic criticism of the team without throwing a fit that could only be roughly describe as the equivalent of petulant, puerile brats who had their favorite video game taken away from them.”

HAHAHAHAHAHA Number four definitely proves that everyone else on here is the “perulant, pEUrile brats.”

No one made any excuses in this thread. But you said it:

the simple fact is the team scored early, defended wave of attack after wave of attack and managed a crazy and unlikely fluke header to win the game. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less.

The only part of that statement that is not a fact is “unlikely fluke” part. It’s by definition an opinion because those are descriptive terms of which you have no proof. If it were fact, you would have some proof to show that it was unlikely and a fluke(which by the way is redundant, and goes to show that you’re blustering). The FACT is that they did it. Wether you believe it was an “unlikely fluke” is irrelevant.

We scored quickly, defended wave after wave, they scored, and quickly we responded to win the game. Wether or not the grandiloquent “usaalltheway” believes it was through luck or skill is irrelevant. You’re opinion is worth nothing. But the goals they ACTUALLY scored are worth 3 points…

We may not have been better than Ghana, but our guys worked hard and earned that result. Those same attributes will make us a difficult team to beat tomorrow, and again vs Germany. That’s not luck. There’s a reason teams don’t enjoy playing us.

By the way, has anyone gotten the emails about the free fantasy games that Stuart Holden and Taylor Twellman are hosting on Draft Street? The contest is Pick’em style, involving just the teams playing tomorrow, with 8 tiers of players (ex: Tier 1: Clint Dempsey, Ronaldo, OR Eden Hazard). You just have to pick one player from each tier before the games kick off tomorrow.. pretty cool and an easy shot at some cash prizes.

Here’s the link if anyone wants to check it out: tinyurl.com/HoldensFantasyContest